


Envy

by emeraldsage85



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Jealousy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-19
Updated: 2015-10-19
Packaged: 2018-04-27 01:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5029003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emeraldsage85/pseuds/emeraldsage85
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ron deals with his jealousy during the Triwizard Tournament.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Envy

Jealousy always creeps into their friendship in some way. It infests even the tiniest corners sometimes, gripping at Ron when he least expects it and poisoning his heart. He tries not to feel it because, after all, he has things that Harry’s only dreamed of – parents who love him, siblings who care for him no matter how badly they get along, and a place besides Hogwarts to call home. Ron knows the Dursleys treat Harry like a house elf and that he hates summers.  His return at Dumbledore’s insistence is always something he dreads.

Ron knows he should be more grateful for his family but deep down inside he still feels the sting of jealousy at Harry’s fame and wealth, his seemingly natural ability to always stand out, and his immense amount of talent on the Quidditch pitch. Ron knows Harry truly doesn’t enjoy the notoriety and adoration heaped on him and that he’d rather be just a regular bloke. However, it still becomes a bone of contention between them.

It all comes to a head in the fourth year that the Triwizard Tournament. At Harry’s insistence that he didn’t put his name in the goblet, Ron feels his jealousy bubble over. Once again he’s nothing, the sidekick, the forgotten, just Harry’s stupid friend.

“Yeah that’s me, Ron Weasley. Harry Potter’s stupid friend,” he mutters as he gets into bed during their row. Then he adds, “Piss off,” for good measure before rolling over to go to sleep.

During the weeks that follow, his anger remains a constant companion and he stays away from his friend lest it boil over into another shouting match in front of their dorm mates. Ron spends most of his time with Hermione and Ginny instead, which isn’t anywhere near as fun as spending time with Harry. Ginny only talks about ridiculous girly things like the latest fashions in Young Witch Weekly and how hot Donaghan Tremlett from the Weird Sisters is. Hermione spends the entire time getting on his case about how he needs to study more and quit procrastinating because OWL’s are next year, which begins to drive him insane.

Finally Ron gets annoyed and tells them both where they can stuff their stupid endless prattling before stomping away from the common room in annoyance. He heads off to go flying with Seamus and Dean but it’s not the same without Harry. Together they always try semi-dangerous Quidditch moves and whip around the castle at breakneck speed as each tries to outdo the other by being the most daring. Dean is a very cautious flyer and Seamus mostly does stupid things like dangling upside down on his broom while shouting rude things at girls below, complete with suggestive hand gestures. Ron feels an ache begin to blossom in his chest. There’s definitely a Harry-shaped hole in his life and no attempt to fill it with homework or Quidditch or other people will do any good.

The morning of the first task dawns and Ron pretends he doesn’t want to go. Hermione badgers him incessantly and then resorts to threatening to hex him into next week if he doesn’t. With a fair amount of grumbling he heads down to the stands with the rest of the Gryffindors and spends the time waiting for the champions to arrive looking and feeling sour.

“Honestly Ron, can’t you just enjoy yourself?” Hermione snaps.

“No,” Ron says petulantly.

Hermione gives him an exasperated look, throws up her hands, and stalks off to talk to some other girls nearby. Ron resolutely ignores everyone and everything around him. It only lasts until he sees the dragon handlers bring out the Swedish Short Snout and the first task begins. He watches in awe as Cedric Diggory manages a very impressive bit of transfiguration by turning a rock into a dog to distract the dragon. Two near-misses and one burn to the face later, which had the crowd visibly cringing, he manages to collect his prize of a golden egg.

Next up is Fleur Delacour against the Common Welsh Green. She takes longer than Cedric, ducking and running among the rocks as the dragon roars mightily and breathes fire in long flaming jets. Fleur uses an enchanted sleep charm Ron’s never heard of before and soon her dragon is snoring peacefully. She attempts to retrieve her egg but only succeeds on the second try, the first having set her skirt on fire as the dragon’s snoring let out a mighty burst of flame.

Viktor Krum takes the third spot against the Chinese Fireball. His use of the conjunctivitis curse is successful but it’s no less harrowing of an ordeal. Despite his feelings of love/hate for the other boy, Ron finds himself on the edge of his seat more than once. Krum is able to snatch the egg while the dragon staggers around clawing at its eyes but is docked points when it steps on and squashes most of the real eggs. He heads back to the tent with Igor Karkaroff in tow, looking decidedly unhappy.

“Harry’s next!” Hermione says excitedly.

Ron doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t want to admit it but suddenly he feels extremely nervous. Somehow this is different from watching someone from another school, different from even watching Cedric because he doesn’t know the Hufflepuff like he knows Harry. This time it’s as personal as it can get without it being himself in the arena and he swallows nervously.

“Do you think he’ll be all right?” Ron asks Hermione.

“He’ll be fine,” she says but she doesn’t look confident.

 Ron watches anxiously as Harry strides into the arena.

“Accio Firebolt!” he says loudly.

For a moment he just stands there and Ron wonders if his best friend is losing his mind.

“I hope this works,” Hermione mutters.

“You hope what works?” Ron demands.

He doesn’t get an answer because suddenly Harry’s Firebolt comes rocketing through the sky to land in his outstretched hand. He hops on and takes off like a shot into the air, ducking and weaving around the Hungarian Horntail with the ease borne of many a Quidditch practice. The dragon flaps her formidable wings and roars furiously but none of it fazes Harry.

Ron is on his feet shrieking madly with the rest of the crowd as Harry soars around the Horntail, looking for an opening so he can grab the egg. Finally he spots it and dives in. The Horntail gnashes her teeth, and with a violent roar of anger, swipes at him with her tail. Harry’s forced to abort his attempt at the last second but quickly recovers and swoops around to try again. The crowd is cheering madly now and Ron hops up and down with nervous excitement

“C’mon Harry!” he bellows.

Harry dive-bombs the dragon before squeezing through a gap under her wing and grabbing the egg. Furious at having her prize stolen, the Horntail swings her enormous spiky tail around and catches him in the shoulder, shredding his Quidditch robes and leaving a nasty-looking gash.

“No!” Ron hollers but his voice is lost in the crowd.

Harry lands and receives his score. The judges take off several points for the shoulder injury, which Ron thinks is unfair, but it still leaves him tied for first place with Cedric.

“First place! That’s amazing. We’ve been working on summoning charms for weeks now,” Hermione says excitedly.

Ron feels guilt wash over him at the realization that Hermione helped Harry prepare for this while he sulked like an overgrown child. It suddenly hits him that he’s been an enormous prat lately. Of course Harry didn’t lie; of course he didn’t put his name in the goblet because it’s such an un-Harry like thing to do. He’s not fame-hungry like Gilderoy Lockhart. He’s never asked for this kind of attention and although he does exhibit a bit of a disregard for the rules, putting his name in the goblet is preposterous. Someone must have done it to him. As they head back to Gryffindor’s common room for the after party Ron decides he needs to apologize. When he enters the room is full of people revelling in Harry’s victory. Fred and George have him hoisted up on their shoulders and he’s holding the golden egg aloft.

“Who wants me to open it?” Harry cries and the room erupts in cheers.

He twists the top of the egg and, as the sections fall open, a horrid sound of screeching fills the room. Everyone covers their ears and winces in pain until he’s finally able to slam it shut.

“What the bloody hell was that?” Ron demands loudly from across the room.

He’s dimly aware that the entire common room is staring at him but he ignores it as he strides across to his friend.

“All right everyone; go back to your knitting. This is going to be uncomfortable enough without all you nosy sods listening in!” Fred announces.

As Ron approaches Harry he realizes that he has no idea of what to say. Somehow “I’m sorry,” doesn’t seem adequate enough to make up for all the weeks he’s behaved so horribly towards his best friend.

He opens his mouth and, “I reckon you’d have to be barking mad to put your own name in the goblet of fire,” tumbles out.

_Open mouth, insert foot._

“Caught on, have you? Took you long enough,” Harry snarks.

“Wasn’t just me who thought you’d done it. Everyone was saying it behind your back,” Ron tries to justify himself but it just comes out worse than he intended it to.

_You’re doing a really swell job at apologizing you berk,_ a little voice in his head whispers as he takes in Harry’s annoyed expression. Ron searches futilely for something, anything he can say that will show his friend that he does care and has cared all along despite his behaviour.

“At least I warned you about the dragons,” he says.

“Hagrid warned me about the dragons,” Harrys says.

“Oh no, I did,” Ron explains, “Don’t you remember? I told Hermione to tell you that Seamus told me that Parvati told Dean that Hagrid was looking for you. Seamus never actually told me anything, so it was really me all along. I thought you’d be alright, you know, after you figured that out.”

Harry looks at him with an incredulous expression and says, “Who could possibly figure that out? It’s completely mental.”

“Yeah, it is, isn’t it? I suppose I was a bit distraught,” Ron admits.

Harry lets out a chuckle and Ron suddenly knows that he’s off the hook. He decides that maybe some things just don’t need to be said in their friendship because they’re implied. Harry always understands Ron’s intentions, sometimes better than even Ron himself, and they don’t need words mucking it all up like a pair of sodding girls.

In the background they hear Hermione’s infuriated sigh of, “Boys!” and the two of them just grin.


End file.
